Safe Haven
by Cain Hargreaves
Summary: Part of my Nano. Just chapter one so it's a bit odd. Basically Jade gets separated from her friends and has to deal with Jake until they meet back up.


A bright green eye watched the teenager as he walked around the small forest. She had seen this man kill at least three things in a fascinating manner. Using his pistols, he would wait until they were almost right on him then fire upon seeing the white of their eyes. She was completely gobsmacked by this and had never thought of doing it that way at all.

Her rifle rested against her old pack. She really needed a new one, but growing up with a grandfather like she had been subjected, to have taught her that something like that was a luxury and not a need. She sighed and picked up said old pack and headed to meet this fascinating male. Jade Harley was sick of being alone in this hellhole of a world…

The other teen turned upon hearing someone creep up behind him. Who was this? She wore a green gas mask that nearly matched his in color, but there was something about her that felt familiar too. Hmm… he would ask Dirk about it if he ever found him, but for now, he would wait for her to catch up with him. He had missed having someone to chat with, even if he was used to a smart mouthed rapping fool. God he missed Dirk… but for now, she would do.

Jade caught up and smiled at him a bit. She was unsure how to do this at the moment, but she would figure it out in the end. Her eyes studied him, bright green on bright green as they met momentarily. She opened her mouth to see what would come out. What did come out was perfect for her actually.

"Hey!" She smiled at him and offered her hand, moving the rifle from one hand to the other so she could shake easier. Her hands that had once been gloved were no longer that way. A little smile touched her lips as she studied him. "Are you traveling alone?"

He nodded. "Unfortunately that seems to be the case as I have been separated from my group for a long time, or what feels like a long time. At any rate, I am Jake. Jake English." He took her hand into his and pumped it up and down once, then released it.

"Jake." The name felt familiar as it left her chapped lips, not that anyone could see them under the mask she wore. "Do you have any news? I have not had any since I was separated from my own group… Dear sweet Rose, brave John and cool Dave." She let a sigh leave her lips as she frowned a bit. When was the last time she would felt so homesick? When has she developed this longing to be near her friends?

Eyes filling with tears, Jade turned her head so she could hide them from her new acquaintance. Her shoulders trembled as she suppressed a sob. How were they? Was John being teased by Dave? Was Rose still okay? Had she gone grimdark again? She had no clue. That bothered her more than she let on really.

Jake sighed and reached out to touch her shoulder, but thought better of it as he studied the woman's rifle. It was worn and used, and covered in stickers not that it mattered, and he realized that it was not for show. It was scratched and held together with sheer willpower it looked like. He could fix it too, if she let him.

He reached for it, and she smacked his hand away with a low growl that sounded deathly ominous behind that gas mask. Jake pulled his hand back and smiled at her, eyes crinkling to show the motion, and then pulled the mask off to show his smile to her. The scar over his lips tilted up at the smile as well. He covered it embarrassed; he having nearly forgotten it was there.

Jade began to laugh. It was the cutest motion she had ever seen. She soon sobered up. "You better put that back on. This area is dangerous. I would rather not have to shoot you because you are trying to eat me." She smiled a bit and adjusted her own mask, so that it fit over her nose better. It had been chafing the area for days now, since she would be in a high risk area.

Of course not only would breathing in the radioactive gases in the air cause infection, so would being bitten or scratched or whatever the case might be. She sighed as she thought of this, of all the ways to die, being a strange man eating creature had to be the worse. Even being a Sprite would beat that as would anything else.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a nearly silent snarl behind them. Spinning around, she pulled up her rifle, but Jake beat her to it as he neatly shot it in the head. "Damn." He sighed and wiped his pistol gently, lovingly. This was not good, because he knew that if one showed up, more would follow. He grabbed her arm and dragged her into a nearby tunnel. "Come on. We have to get the hell out of here!" He sighed softly and leaned against a wall. "Shit. We need to get away from here."

Jade frowned. "Wow. That was a close one, eh?" She sighed softly and relaxed for just a moment and then looked down the tunnel. "I did not know this was here at all." She grinned. "Great way to travel…" This would have saved them so much trouble. John would not have hurt his leg so bad, and Dave would not have that scar over his eye.

She glowered and looked at her scruffy shoes that had seen better days and were no longer a sky blue, but an ugly almost blackish blue. She used one of those shoes to score a line in the dirt on the ground, effectively making the shoe sole even nastier than before. It did not even upset Jade as she stared at it, but it did make her wonder when the last time she would had new shoes. Two or three years before, that was her best guess on this little journey thing she had set out for herself and her friends.

Jake had been watching her, an almost brotherly concern settling over his eyes. He was unsure of this strange girl's story but he found that it was hard to find the right words to ask her what was going on with. Instead of asking, he began to lead the other person through the long tunnel to a safer area, well as safe as an area could be at this point in time. He noted that Jade did not say a word the entire time they were walking. He also noted that she chose to stare at her shoes instead of choosing to speak to the man with the pistols.

He did not let it bother him as he had other things to think of. His thoughts often wondered to the friends that he had not seen in nearly six months after an ambush had separated them all. He had been trusted with watching the camp as his three friends drifted off to sleep. Well two of them had easily, but Dirk had stayed awake to chat for a bit. Jake missed those silly little conversations that usually ended in them both gasping for breath from laughing. Such good, simple times, gone now in a flash.

He glanced back at Jade and worried his lip as he tried to think of something to say. Maybe he should not voice anything for now, maybe he would let it all slide. His mask sat neatly on his nose, but he reached up to adjust it anyway. He always fussed with it once he was nervous, and Jade made him nervous beyond belief. He could not pin why though, but she reminded him of someone that he should remember from sometime in his life. He hoped that his friends were okay. That is what he just needed to know.

Jade's mind was on much the same things. She wondered about John, Dave and Rose. She also worried about them. She had been the mediator of the group, the one that would help her friends so that things would not end up in fights. She was also the one that the others relied on to talk to when things got too tough. Her wisdom had sent her flock away happy many times. She liked to help and talk and make the others content.

Soon the tunnel opened into a new wider corridor that would hopefully lead them to a new zone. Jade's breath caught as she looked around the new part of the passageway. Pictures dotted the walls. One managed to alert her to a single fact. The way it was drawn was only indicative of one person that she knew.

"Strider. Dave has been through here."  
Her heart soared as she looked at the wall. She raised her hand to touch the little drawing and then spotted the initials. D.S. It had to be Dave! It had to be! She sighed softly and looked down the tunnel. "We have to keep going!"

Jake smiled. "That could also be my friend Dirk. Dirk Strider. He has that same thing tattooed on his arm. His eyes sparkled in the dark space. "Let us keep going then!" He led the way out of the tunnel.

Leading the way out, Jake let the first true smile touch his lips in the longest time. He could breathe finally. He smiled as he felt the sun on his face. His hand reached up and pulled the black and green mask off, showing off his crooked smile. He could think here, instead of that infernal jungle.

Jade followed suit and also pulled her hoodie hood down so she could look around. Her left eye was covered with a long scar, showing that she had suffered some sort of trauma to it, resulting in blindness. Her specially fitted mask made it possible to see in shades of green however, as she had made it specifically to make her able to fight in combat of course. She sighed and sat it to the side so she could clean it after getting the supplies from her bag.

Jake began to make dinner as they settled in for the night. He hummed as he added his spices that he liked. This was going to be yummy. He glanced at his friend and sighed softly. Maybe he would try to chat with her later and learn about her friends.


End file.
